Minnesota Schedule Preview: Michigan Wolverines
The schedule previews for Minnesota's 2024 season continue to roll on today here at Gophers Nation, moving into the spotlight today is the defending national champions, the Michigan Wolverines.
The Wolverines are coming off their first national championship since 1997 as part of a 15-0 season.
That being said, it wasn't a perfect offseason for the Wolverines. Jim Harbaugh quickly left the program for the NFL after the Wolverines won the national championship and Sherrone Moore has been tabbed to lead the program going forward.
Previous Schedule Previews: North Carolina | Rhode Island | Nevada | Iowa
On top of that, the Wolverines lost nearly more production from their 2023 squad than nearly anyone else in college football and that's not counting key coaching staff departures either.
Key coaching staff members to follow Jim Harbaugh to Los Angeles included defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh, and special teams coach Ben Herbert among others.
Its safe to say that it was a very busy offseason for Sherrone Moore in his first few month's as the head coach of the Wolverines.
On top of that, Michigan is set to face a much tougher schedule in 2024 than they did in 2023. Notable opponents on the Wolverines' schedule this upcoming fall includes Texas, USC, Washington, Oregon, and Ohio State. They'll also have a quality week one matchup against Fresno State, a vastly superior team to East Carolina, UNLV, and Bowling Green that the Wolverines opened up their season with last season.
Let's take a closer look at the Wolverines entering Big Ten Media Day's next week.
HEAD COACH PROFILE: Sherrone Moore
Moore is entering his first full season as the head coach of the Wolverines after being named the successor to Jim Harbaugh this offseason. Moore previously was the acting head coach for the Wolverines last season for four games as Harbaugh served a suspension. The Wolverines would go onto win each of the those four games including a 24-15 victory at Penn State and a 30-24 victory over Ohio State.
Moore has been at Michigan since the 2018 season and also spent time at Louisville (2009-2013) and Central Michigan (2014-2017) as an assistant coach.
NOTABLE PERSONNEL LOSSES
This Michigan team lost a monumental amount of production from the 2024 season. Below, we list out there NFL draft and eligibility departures as well as their transfer portal departures.
NFL DRAFT / ELIGIBILITY DEPARTURES
TRANSFER PORTAL DEPARTURES
NOTABLE PERSONNEL ADDITIONS
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Edwards is stet to take over as Michigan's top running back following the departure of Blake Corum. Last season, Edwards totaled 149 touches for 746 yards and five touchdowns from the line of scrimmage.
Loveland is one of the nation's top tight ends after recording 45 receptions for 649 yards and four touchdowns in 2023.
Morgan was one of the Wolverines' top receivers last season with 22 receptions for 249 yards and one touchdown. With Roman Wilson and Cornelius Johnson off to the NFL, Morgan could be in store for an even bigger role.
The Wolverines' No. 3 tackler from last season, Hausmann recorded 46 tackles and two tackles for loss in 2023.
Stewart after transferring in from Coastal Carolina recorded 38 tackles last season for the Wolverines including 8.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks.
Johnson recorded 27 tackles last season as well as four interceptions and four pass deflections.
THREE QUESTIONS
1. Is Alex Orji ready to be the Wolverines' starting quarterback?
Replacing J.J. McCarthy as the starting quarterback for the Wolverines wasn't going to be an easy job and Orji is McCarthy's likely successor. Prior to this season, Orji has thrown just one career passing attempt, a completion for five yards. He also has 21 career rushing attempts for 123 yards and three touchdowns.
2. How do the Wolverines replace six key offensive lineman?
The Wolverines lost a major part of their offensive line depth from a year ago in Zak Zinter, Trevor Keegan, Trente Jones, LaDarius Henderson, Drake Nugent, and Karsen Barnhart. For any program, that's a tough task and it will be a tough task as well for the Wolverines. That being said, if there's any program well equipped to do so, it's the Wolverines. The Wolverines are winners of two of their last three Joe Moore Awards. That being said, Sherrone Moore has been the program's offensive line coach for each of the last three years and has now handed the keys over to Grant Newsome.
3. What does a Sherrone Moore led Michigan program look like?
With Sherrone Moore leading the Wolverines into a new era, following their national championship, it begs the question, "What does a Sherrone Moore led Michigan program look like?"
What will be the major differences between the Harbaugh led Wolverines and the Moore led Wolverines? What will be the major similarities? Will the offensive or defensive philosophy see any major changes? Plus many more questions. On the surface level, it appears Moore isn't trying to fix what's not broken but only time will tell when it comes to what the Wolverines under Moore are going to look like in 2024 and beyond.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Wolverines certainly lost a ton in fact, in Bill Connelly’s returning production rankings for the 2024 season, Michigan ranks 128 out of 134. The only Power Four program with lower returning production is Washington at No. 130.
That being said, this is still one of the top teams in the Big Ten and will have an opportunity to make a run to another College Football Playoff appearance. It will be interesting to see how the Wolverines perform against some of the upper echelon of programs in the conference but for most of their schedule, the Wolverines should be in a good spot.
This will be a very tough game for the Gophers to win and having to head to The Big House in Ann Arbor doesn't make it any easier.
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